BLOOMINGTON — Archie Miller doesn’t know what, if anything, he’ll do short-term with the scholarship opened by Grant Gelon’s transfer late last month.

Speaking earlier this week at Huber’s Orchard and Winery in Borden, the Indiana University men's basketball coach said that scholarships “are like gold,” and that he and his staff would be selective about how they use that open spot.

“You have to be able to do what’s best for you at a certain time of the year,” IU’s new coach said Wednesday. “They’re not things you just fire out there and hopefully fill bodies. You have to have a plan.”

Coupled with three NBA declarations, Gelon’s departure leaves the Hoosiers light one scholarship ahead of next season.

In his introductory news conference in late March, Miller suggested that he didn’t see carrying 13 scholarship players as an annual imperative, something he backed up this week when he suggested he’s always looking for roster “versatility.”

IU reportedly hosted 2017 Italian guard prospect Davide Moretti on a campus visit recently. And there have been suggestions the Hoosiers could get involved with Nahziah Carter, a wing from New York whose uncle is the hip-hop star and media mogul Jay Z.

Carter originally signed with Dayton in the 2017 class. When Miller left for IU, Carter pulled back, and has reportedly considered reclassifying to 2018, giving his recruitment a year to reboot.

Indiana has been in touch, though it’s unclear whether the Hoosiers’ interest applies for the 2017 or the 2018 class.

“I know Archie and (associate head coach) Tom (Ostrom) loved Nahz, and I know Nahz loved them at Dayton,” said Patrick Neary, vice president of Carter’s AAU program, City Rocks. “Indiana would be an incredible place for Nahz, and Nahz would be an exceptional student-athlete representative of Indiana and coach Miller.”

An IU-Kentucky series?

Given its proximity to Louisville, the annual event at Huber is always fertile ground for renewing the debate over the IU-Kentucky series, a debate Miller and athletic director Fred Glass addressed Wednesday.

Asked about both that rivalry, and a series with Arizona and his brother, Sean, Archie Miller said he’s receptive to both. He joked that the hold-up in the Arizona series might be who’s willing to go to whose campus first, and he deadpanned that he might look to assistant coach Bruiser Flint — a friend and former assistant under Kentucky coach John Calipari — to sound out the Wildcats.

While nothing is likely to happen immediately, the message from both Miller and Glass was clear: IU wants Kentucky back on the schedule.

"I'm optimistic that we'll get it put back together," Glass said. "I'm willing to compromise on some of the principles we had set out in terms of (game location). I don't want to negotiate with my cards up or lead with my chin, or whatever the metaphor is, but we're willing to work with Kentucky to do something that makes sense for them to get the series back on track.”

Multipurpose arena approved

Glass’ capital improvements campaign, which he envisions remaking the entire IU athletics campus by the end of this decade, could take another significant step this summer.

Speaking with reporters at Huber, Glass said IU’s proposed multipurpose arena, meant primarily to house its volleyball and wrestling programs, has been approved by the board of trustees. Groundbreaking is set for this fall, with completion expected in time for the 2019 athletic season.

The enclosure of Memorial Stadium’s south end zone is “on time and on budget,” according to Glass, with completion still targeted for the start of the 2018 football season.

And proposed renovation of IU’s golf course, long a source of consternation among fans, is ready to go before the board of trustees.

“We expect to take our golf course renovation to the board of trustees during their June meeting in South Bend,” Glass said. “If they approve that, we’ll break ground on the golf course in the fall, and that will be open for the golf season in 2019.

“The golf course has been a bit of a conundrum for many, many years. If we can solve that one, which we expect to do, it’ll be a world-class championship golf course, but will continue to be accessible to faculty, staff and students.”